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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Action & Adventure
- Subject: Adventure
- Published: 09/12/2018
The Injection
Born 1997, M, from Ozark, Missouri, United StatesI lie motionless in bed on a Saturday morning. While everyone else was either asleep or watching cartoons I’m just staring at the ceiling of my bedroom while thinking about what was coming up. ‘The Injection’ was what was on my mind. On the day of my sixteenth birthday I will have to get it just like most everyone before me had to. I’d never been particularly fond of needles or getting shots but that wasn’t what was bothering me.
The injection, which was a cure-all for cancer and other diseases. It would even cure them if you already had them, so some people took it at younger ages if they were unlucky. It was developed only ten years ago so most of the adults still had not taken the injection. The one major thing that bothered me was how everyone I knew who had taken it changed. They were still the same person but their personalities seemed different.
I tossed around this thought in my head a little longer until I smelt the scent of what I assumed to be breakfast. I lifted the covers of my bed off of myself, not caring to make my bed, and got dressed. I left my room to go check out what was being cooked as I had grown hungry from my thoughts. I made my way down the hallway crossing the living room where my dad was sitting down on his laptop. The television was turned on showing an old rerun of a cartoon.
“Good morning Damian, how did you sleep?.” said Dad, not even looking up from his laptop.
“Morning Dad, I slept fine.” I responded, “What did Mom make for breakfast today?”
“She made some toast with gravy, it’s was pretty good, you should have some.” said Dad, this time looking up at me as he spoke.
“Alright, I think I will.” I said as I made my way to the kitchen.
I soon walked into the kitchen to have my nostrils flooded with the smell of today’s breakfast.
“Oh hey sweetie, breakfast is on the table.” said Mom as she was putting dishes away in the dishwasher.
“Thanks Mom, it smells great.” I said as I took a seat at the table and started eating.
“Are you ready for the injection?” asked Mom, “You know you have to take it tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…” trying to hide the worry on my face, “Hey Mom, have you noticed anything different about the people after they took the injection?”
“What do you mean Damian?” asked Mom who seemed a little puzzled by the question.
“Oh, nothing. Forget I asked” I responded quickly, wishing to end this conversation quickly.
I hurriedly finished my breakfast and put away my dishes before leaving. I then went back to my room to grab my shoes so that I could leave the house. After lacing up my shoes I said goodbye to my parents while I was walking across the living room to the door.
“Wait son, where are you going?” asked Dad
“I’ll probably head over to Gabriella’s place and then go to the mall or around town.” I responded.
“Well...alright but be careful.” said Dad.
“Alright, I’ll try, see you guys later.” I said as I closed the front door behind me and grabbed my bike. I started pedaling towards Gabriella’s house in the neighborhood next to mine. Gabriella and I had always been best friends, I guess that’s to be expected when you share the same birthday. We’ve known each other since before preschool, our parents actually used to go to school together. We’ve even celebrated our birthdays together for the past fifteen years.
As I rode up to Gabriella’s house she was already outside playing basketball with her little brother Carlos, he was thirteen years old and had the same dark hair and brown eyes as his sister.
“Gabriella, Gabriella, where art thou Gabriella?” I said mockingly as I left my bike and was walking towards them.
“I’m right here you loser” Gabriella responded, “So, what do you want Damian?”
“Ehhh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hangout… you know before we have to get the injection…” I said awkwardly.
“Hey, I’m going to go head back inside and tell Mom you’ll be hanging out with Damian” said Carlos.
“I haven’t even made my mind up if I wanted to go yet!” said Gabriella, sassy as usual,” Fine...I suppose I’ll hang out with you today then.”
“Great, it’s a date!” I said jokingly
“You wish!” Gabriella retorted
“Alright, calm down, I was just joking” I said smiling “Let’s get going then!”
It was about a ten minute ride on our bikes to get to the mall. The whole way was pretty much silent, then again it usually is. I was wondering if she was thinking about the injection, honestly I wonder what she was thinking about at all.
When we finally got to the mall I asked, “What do you want to do now?”
“I figured you would have already thought of something” responded Gabriella
“Well I do but I was wondering if you wanted to do anything first before I initiated my plan” I said as much as a nerd as possible.
“Well tell me then, what do you have in mind?” She asked.
“I was thinking we could go to the smoothie place, get a few drinks then go grab something to eat.” I said.
“Sound fine to me.” She responded blandly.
We started to make our way through the mall after we put up our bikes at a rack at the side entrance of the mall. The mall if a nice place to hang out with friends, it’s huge, has a ton of places to go and have fun. The only downside is all the propaganda posters and ads all across the place. Vandalising the propaganda has a lot of penalties as well so no one even thinks of trying anything. Most of it is just some shotty slogan with the face of the president, Q. Alfred. He calls himself president although he wins every year with no competition. He’s also the reason we have the shots now at sixteen.
I saw the posters and it all reminded me that Gabriella and I have to take our shots tomorrow as well. That made me start feeling uneasy again.
“You feeling alright Damian?” asked Gabriella
“Yeah just fine…” I responded.
“You know I can tell when you’re lying, so just tell me what’s up.” she said.
“Huh...aren’t you worried, you know, about the shot or anything that we have to take tomorrow? I mean you’ve seen as much as I how it changes people.” I said worringly.
“Not really.” she said blatantly
“How are you not!?” I exclaimed
“Why am I not? Well that’s simple. I’m running away.” she said looking at me dead in the eyes.
I felt a cold chill go down my spine.
“What?! How are you going to survive?” I questioned
“I’m going to go to the outside.” she said, looking away.
“You can’t do that! You know what they say is out there, just a bunch of crazy people with guns are out there, it’s a complete wasteland!” I said, trying to grasp the situation.
“I will, I was also wondering something though…” She said as she trailed off.
“No you won’t, and what were you wondering?” I asked, fully curious of what she could possibly be wondering at a time like this.
“If you would go with me.” She asked, once again looking me in my eyes.
My heart stopped. I couldn’t believe all that was happening. I feel like I’d wake up and it would all be a dream. I’d be safe inside my bed waking up on a Saturday morning.
“So, what do you say?” she asked midway through my thoughts.
“I don’t know.” I said.
“Well you better tell me before tomorrow, that’s when we have to take our shots. Then we’ll change just like the rest.” she said coldly.
I just looked at her with a loss of words. I didn’t know what to say. I felt like I should go with her but I couldn’t possibly leave my family behind could I?
“I’ll think it over, I’ll come up with my decision tonight at twelve.” I said
“Alright, I’ll come over then.” she said
We continued throughout the mall in an awkward silence. We came to the smoothie place and ordered our drinks. I, of course, was made to pay. We didn’t talk for the rest of our visit to the mall. We left the mall a while later riding our bikes home.
We stopped at her house, it was still early in the evening. “I’ll see you later I suppose…” I said slowly.
“Yeah I’ll come around when it’s time.” She said, as if though it were about the most casual thing in the world.
As I rode my bike slowly to the house I was lost in thought. I didn’t understand why any of this is happening. Why couldn’t life just be normal and I don’t have to deal with weird things like Gabriella wanting to run off and us having to get the injection. Sometimes I think life is meant to be harsh and cruel on purpose.
I finally got home and opened the door. “Hey son, how are you doing?” Dad asked
“Eh, I’m doing fine I suppose.” I lied
“Alright well your mother should be done with dinner soon, so you should probably go wash your hands and get ready.” Dad said.
“Really? It’s only four o’clock. That’s a little early for dinner, no?” I asked.
“Yeah well your mother and I are going out later to a ball, we’ll should be back sometime after you fall asleep.” Dad said nonchalantly.
“Well that sounds really irresponsible,” I said jokingly, “Leaving your kid alone telling him you’ll eventually be back sometime.”
“Hey, what can I say? Father of the year awards goes to me!” He said laughing.
I walked off into my room to take off my shoes. I then headed down the hallway to wash my hands in the bathroom. Afterwards I headed towards the kitchen to get some of the food that my mom had cooked.
“Hey Mom, what did you make for dinner today?” I asked
“Nothing too special, just something for you since your father and I will be going out.” she replied.
“So what is it then?” I asked again.
“It’s just some macaroni and cheese, there’s some chips in the pantry if you want them.” she said
“Alright, thanks mom” I said happily, macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite meals to eat.
“No problem, sweetie. Don’t stay up too late, we’ll be back home around two in the morning so if you need anything just call or text me.
They left soon after I had finished eating, at that time it had been around five in the afternoon. I sat in the bed of my room thinking to myself if I should leave with Gabriella or not. I want to go with her but on the other hand just up and leaving everyone else seems absurd. What about school and everything?
“Huh...I don’t know what to do.” I said aloud.
“What should I do?” I said wondering
I stood up feeling awful. I had made my choice. Now I just had to wait for Gabriella to show up.
“I’ll guess I should do something while I wait.” I said to myself
I decided to pick out a game to play while I waited. I was playing for a bit until I had eventually dozed off.
I woke up to a sharp knocking on my window.
“What the-” I managed to say before I was cut off.
“Get up already!” I heard a feminine voice through my window.
I opened the blinds and window to see Gabriella’s face looking back at me.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“You need to choose, that’s what’s up.” she said bluntly.
“Oh yeah…” I said, trailing off.
“So what is it? Are you coming with me or are you staying here?” she asked.
“...” I didn’t answer her for a bit. I just looked at her and stared into her eyes trying to read how she felt about all this.
“Alright, I’ll tell you.” I said after a long pause.
“Finally, I felt like I was going to grow old and die waiting for you to answer.” said Gabriella.
“You don’t have to be so rude…” I said.
“Just like how you don’t have to take a century to answer a question…” she said half jokingly.
“Fine then I’ll tell you my answer then.” I said calmly.
“I’ll go with you.” I said looking her in the eyes.
“That’s great.” she said, honestly seeming pleased that I said that I would go with her to the outside.
“You look a little too excited considering we’re going to be going to a place like the ‘outside’ ” I said.
“Maybe, maybe not. You seem pretty calm yourself.” she replied.
“I suppose I am.” I said.
“Alright, grab your stuff and we’ll get going.” she said.
“Do you even have a way to get to the outside?” I asked.
“Yeah, there’s this abandoned warehouse that in the basement has a tunnel that leads to the outside. It’s a pretty long tunnel to we’ll be walking for a while.” she said.
I grabbed my belongings that I had packed before I started playing my game. I left a note on my nightstand for my parents apologizing for leaving.
“Alright, I’m ready...” I said.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m just a little worried about the rest of my family. I hope they won’t be too sad once they find out that I had run away.” I said.
“I know what you mean.” she said.
“It’s crazy to think but… we might never see them again.” I said.
“Yeah… well let’s head out before anyone can notice us.” she said.
“That’s true, we don’t want t be caught past curfew.” I said.
We walked through the neighborhoods hiding in the shadows. We’d duck and hide behind things whenever a car would come by. It was a long walk, especially with us having to carry our belongings.
“Are we almost there yet?” I asked in a childish tone.
“We’ll get there when we get there, or do you want me to turn this car around?” she replied as a joke.
“Haha, okay but seriously how much longer do we have until we are there?” I asked
“We should almost be there, If I remember right it should be after the next turn.” she replied.
She was right, after we had turned the corner we came to a large building that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. The windows were boarded up and the large front double doors had a chain on it that was padlocked.
“How are we supposed to get inside?” I asked.
“There’s a window behind in the back with the boards loose. We can squeeze through there.” she said.
We walked around back and looked for the window with the loose boards. We eventually found it and entered the building. It was bare and had some wooden planks laying around.
“So is the tunnel in the basement or something?” I asked.
“Yeah it should be somewhere down there…” she said.
We found the stair that led to the basement. The stairs seemed long and plunged into the darkness of the basement.
“That looks really creepy...” I said.
“Yeah… good thing I brought a flashlight…” she said.
The staircase was rather narrow with walls on it’s sides. At least if we fall it’d be down the stairs instead of over the railing into a freefall until we splatter on the ground.
“Alright, we should be almost there, after we get there, there’s no turning back.” she said facing me.
“I know this.” I said.
“So you are sure you want to go through with this? You can always just head back the way we came.” she said.
“I’m sure… besides you’d be lost and die without me.” I said.
“Yeah right.” She said with her usual sassy tone.
We made it to the tunnel and opened it. We walked into it only bringing our memories and what we brought with us. Leaving everything behind.
“I wonder what’s going to be on the other side...” I said to Gabriella.
“I don’t know, I just know it’s not as bad as everyone thinks.” Gabriella said.
“So what about Carlos and your family? Will you miss them?” I asked.
“Of course I’ll miss them. That was a pretty stupid question. I’m sure you’re going to miss your parents too.” she said
“Yeah I guess you’re right. I just hope they’ll be okay.” I said
“I told Carlos to tell my parent what was happening. Carlos didn’t want me to go but he understood why. He said when he’s about to turn sixteen he’ll come after us. So we’ll eventually have to come back to meet him.” she said.
“I wonder when my parents will find out… I left them a note but they probably won’t be home until late and once they come back they’ll probably fall asleep.” I said.
“Nothing will ever be the same…” she said.
“Yeah I figured that.” I said.
We continued down the tunnel for what felt like miles. The tunnel was weird. It seemed like it had been here forever. It felt like someone purposely built this tunnel. I wondered if anyone else had used this tunnel. I also started to wonder why Gabriella knew about it.
“Hey, Gabriella.” I said.
“Yeah, what’s up?” she asked.
“How did you know about this place?” I asked
“Well the abandoned warehouse I had seen throughout my life and we go past it almost everyday when we go to school.” she said
“What about the tunnel, how did you know about it?” I asked
“I’ve been here before. I thought it would be a cool place to look through so I did.” she said
“Are you sure it will lead to the outside?” I asked.
“I’m sure.” she said.
We continued to walk in silence. It seemed like we had walked many more miles until she said something.
“I think we’re almost there.” she said.
“Oh really?” I said
I noticed the air smelt a little fresher and it seemed like it had gotten brighter.
“There’s a door up there” Gabriella said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah really, let’s go!” She said excited.
We ran up to the door and got ready to open it. The smile on Gabriella’s face was a smile I hadn’t seen in years.
“You ready Damian?” she asked
“I’m ready.” I said
With that we walked through the door. We left our old lives behind and now we’ve come here to start a new one. I don’t know what will happen now but I feel like everything will be okay.
The Injection(Jared Estrada)
I lie motionless in bed on a Saturday morning. While everyone else was either asleep or watching cartoons I’m just staring at the ceiling of my bedroom while thinking about what was coming up. ‘The Injection’ was what was on my mind. On the day of my sixteenth birthday I will have to get it just like most everyone before me had to. I’d never been particularly fond of needles or getting shots but that wasn’t what was bothering me.
The injection, which was a cure-all for cancer and other diseases. It would even cure them if you already had them, so some people took it at younger ages if they were unlucky. It was developed only ten years ago so most of the adults still had not taken the injection. The one major thing that bothered me was how everyone I knew who had taken it changed. They were still the same person but their personalities seemed different.
I tossed around this thought in my head a little longer until I smelt the scent of what I assumed to be breakfast. I lifted the covers of my bed off of myself, not caring to make my bed, and got dressed. I left my room to go check out what was being cooked as I had grown hungry from my thoughts. I made my way down the hallway crossing the living room where my dad was sitting down on his laptop. The television was turned on showing an old rerun of a cartoon.
“Good morning Damian, how did you sleep?.” said Dad, not even looking up from his laptop.
“Morning Dad, I slept fine.” I responded, “What did Mom make for breakfast today?”
“She made some toast with gravy, it’s was pretty good, you should have some.” said Dad, this time looking up at me as he spoke.
“Alright, I think I will.” I said as I made my way to the kitchen.
I soon walked into the kitchen to have my nostrils flooded with the smell of today’s breakfast.
“Oh hey sweetie, breakfast is on the table.” said Mom as she was putting dishes away in the dishwasher.
“Thanks Mom, it smells great.” I said as I took a seat at the table and started eating.
“Are you ready for the injection?” asked Mom, “You know you have to take it tomorrow.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…” trying to hide the worry on my face, “Hey Mom, have you noticed anything different about the people after they took the injection?”
“What do you mean Damian?” asked Mom who seemed a little puzzled by the question.
“Oh, nothing. Forget I asked” I responded quickly, wishing to end this conversation quickly.
I hurriedly finished my breakfast and put away my dishes before leaving. I then went back to my room to grab my shoes so that I could leave the house. After lacing up my shoes I said goodbye to my parents while I was walking across the living room to the door.
“Wait son, where are you going?” asked Dad
“I’ll probably head over to Gabriella’s place and then go to the mall or around town.” I responded.
“Well...alright but be careful.” said Dad.
“Alright, I’ll try, see you guys later.” I said as I closed the front door behind me and grabbed my bike. I started pedaling towards Gabriella’s house in the neighborhood next to mine. Gabriella and I had always been best friends, I guess that’s to be expected when you share the same birthday. We’ve known each other since before preschool, our parents actually used to go to school together. We’ve even celebrated our birthdays together for the past fifteen years.
As I rode up to Gabriella’s house she was already outside playing basketball with her little brother Carlos, he was thirteen years old and had the same dark hair and brown eyes as his sister.
“Gabriella, Gabriella, where art thou Gabriella?” I said mockingly as I left my bike and was walking towards them.
“I’m right here you loser” Gabriella responded, “So, what do you want Damian?”
“Ehhh, I was just wondering if you wanted to hangout… you know before we have to get the injection…” I said awkwardly.
“Hey, I’m going to go head back inside and tell Mom you’ll be hanging out with Damian” said Carlos.
“I haven’t even made my mind up if I wanted to go yet!” said Gabriella, sassy as usual,” Fine...I suppose I’ll hang out with you today then.”
“Great, it’s a date!” I said jokingly
“You wish!” Gabriella retorted
“Alright, calm down, I was just joking” I said smiling “Let’s get going then!”
It was about a ten minute ride on our bikes to get to the mall. The whole way was pretty much silent, then again it usually is. I was wondering if she was thinking about the injection, honestly I wonder what she was thinking about at all.
When we finally got to the mall I asked, “What do you want to do now?”
“I figured you would have already thought of something” responded Gabriella
“Well I do but I was wondering if you wanted to do anything first before I initiated my plan” I said as much as a nerd as possible.
“Well tell me then, what do you have in mind?” She asked.
“I was thinking we could go to the smoothie place, get a few drinks then go grab something to eat.” I said.
“Sound fine to me.” She responded blandly.
We started to make our way through the mall after we put up our bikes at a rack at the side entrance of the mall. The mall if a nice place to hang out with friends, it’s huge, has a ton of places to go and have fun. The only downside is all the propaganda posters and ads all across the place. Vandalising the propaganda has a lot of penalties as well so no one even thinks of trying anything. Most of it is just some shotty slogan with the face of the president, Q. Alfred. He calls himself president although he wins every year with no competition. He’s also the reason we have the shots now at sixteen.
I saw the posters and it all reminded me that Gabriella and I have to take our shots tomorrow as well. That made me start feeling uneasy again.
“You feeling alright Damian?” asked Gabriella
“Yeah just fine…” I responded.
“You know I can tell when you’re lying, so just tell me what’s up.” she said.
“Huh...aren’t you worried, you know, about the shot or anything that we have to take tomorrow? I mean you’ve seen as much as I how it changes people.” I said worringly.
“Not really.” she said blatantly
“How are you not!?” I exclaimed
“Why am I not? Well that’s simple. I’m running away.” she said looking at me dead in the eyes.
I felt a cold chill go down my spine.
“What?! How are you going to survive?” I questioned
“I’m going to go to the outside.” she said, looking away.
“You can’t do that! You know what they say is out there, just a bunch of crazy people with guns are out there, it’s a complete wasteland!” I said, trying to grasp the situation.
“I will, I was also wondering something though…” She said as she trailed off.
“No you won’t, and what were you wondering?” I asked, fully curious of what she could possibly be wondering at a time like this.
“If you would go with me.” She asked, once again looking me in my eyes.
My heart stopped. I couldn’t believe all that was happening. I feel like I’d wake up and it would all be a dream. I’d be safe inside my bed waking up on a Saturday morning.
“So, what do you say?” she asked midway through my thoughts.
“I don’t know.” I said.
“Well you better tell me before tomorrow, that’s when we have to take our shots. Then we’ll change just like the rest.” she said coldly.
I just looked at her with a loss of words. I didn’t know what to say. I felt like I should go with her but I couldn’t possibly leave my family behind could I?
“I’ll think it over, I’ll come up with my decision tonight at twelve.” I said
“Alright, I’ll come over then.” she said
We continued throughout the mall in an awkward silence. We came to the smoothie place and ordered our drinks. I, of course, was made to pay. We didn’t talk for the rest of our visit to the mall. We left the mall a while later riding our bikes home.
We stopped at her house, it was still early in the evening. “I’ll see you later I suppose…” I said slowly.
“Yeah I’ll come around when it’s time.” She said, as if though it were about the most casual thing in the world.
As I rode my bike slowly to the house I was lost in thought. I didn’t understand why any of this is happening. Why couldn’t life just be normal and I don’t have to deal with weird things like Gabriella wanting to run off and us having to get the injection. Sometimes I think life is meant to be harsh and cruel on purpose.
I finally got home and opened the door. “Hey son, how are you doing?” Dad asked
“Eh, I’m doing fine I suppose.” I lied
“Alright well your mother should be done with dinner soon, so you should probably go wash your hands and get ready.” Dad said.
“Really? It’s only four o’clock. That’s a little early for dinner, no?” I asked.
“Yeah well your mother and I are going out later to a ball, we’ll should be back sometime after you fall asleep.” Dad said nonchalantly.
“Well that sounds really irresponsible,” I said jokingly, “Leaving your kid alone telling him you’ll eventually be back sometime.”
“Hey, what can I say? Father of the year awards goes to me!” He said laughing.
I walked off into my room to take off my shoes. I then headed down the hallway to wash my hands in the bathroom. Afterwards I headed towards the kitchen to get some of the food that my mom had cooked.
“Hey Mom, what did you make for dinner today?” I asked
“Nothing too special, just something for you since your father and I will be going out.” she replied.
“So what is it then?” I asked again.
“It’s just some macaroni and cheese, there’s some chips in the pantry if you want them.” she said
“Alright, thanks mom” I said happily, macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite meals to eat.
“No problem, sweetie. Don’t stay up too late, we’ll be back home around two in the morning so if you need anything just call or text me.
They left soon after I had finished eating, at that time it had been around five in the afternoon. I sat in the bed of my room thinking to myself if I should leave with Gabriella or not. I want to go with her but on the other hand just up and leaving everyone else seems absurd. What about school and everything?
“Huh...I don’t know what to do.” I said aloud.
“What should I do?” I said wondering
I stood up feeling awful. I had made my choice. Now I just had to wait for Gabriella to show up.
“I’ll guess I should do something while I wait.” I said to myself
I decided to pick out a game to play while I waited. I was playing for a bit until I had eventually dozed off.
I woke up to a sharp knocking on my window.
“What the-” I managed to say before I was cut off.
“Get up already!” I heard a feminine voice through my window.
I opened the blinds and window to see Gabriella’s face looking back at me.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“You need to choose, that’s what’s up.” she said bluntly.
“Oh yeah…” I said, trailing off.
“So what is it? Are you coming with me or are you staying here?” she asked.
“...” I didn’t answer her for a bit. I just looked at her and stared into her eyes trying to read how she felt about all this.
“Alright, I’ll tell you.” I said after a long pause.
“Finally, I felt like I was going to grow old and die waiting for you to answer.” said Gabriella.
“You don’t have to be so rude…” I said.
“Just like how you don’t have to take a century to answer a question…” she said half jokingly.
“Fine then I’ll tell you my answer then.” I said calmly.
“I’ll go with you.” I said looking her in the eyes.
“That’s great.” she said, honestly seeming pleased that I said that I would go with her to the outside.
“You look a little too excited considering we’re going to be going to a place like the ‘outside’ ” I said.
“Maybe, maybe not. You seem pretty calm yourself.” she replied.
“I suppose I am.” I said.
“Alright, grab your stuff and we’ll get going.” she said.
“Do you even have a way to get to the outside?” I asked.
“Yeah, there’s this abandoned warehouse that in the basement has a tunnel that leads to the outside. It’s a pretty long tunnel to we’ll be walking for a while.” she said.
I grabbed my belongings that I had packed before I started playing my game. I left a note on my nightstand for my parents apologizing for leaving.
“Alright, I’m ready...” I said.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m just a little worried about the rest of my family. I hope they won’t be too sad once they find out that I had run away.” I said.
“I know what you mean.” she said.
“It’s crazy to think but… we might never see them again.” I said.
“Yeah… well let’s head out before anyone can notice us.” she said.
“That’s true, we don’t want t be caught past curfew.” I said.
We walked through the neighborhoods hiding in the shadows. We’d duck and hide behind things whenever a car would come by. It was a long walk, especially with us having to carry our belongings.
“Are we almost there yet?” I asked in a childish tone.
“We’ll get there when we get there, or do you want me to turn this car around?” she replied as a joke.
“Haha, okay but seriously how much longer do we have until we are there?” I asked
“We should almost be there, If I remember right it should be after the next turn.” she replied.
She was right, after we had turned the corner we came to a large building that looked like it hadn’t been used in years. The windows were boarded up and the large front double doors had a chain on it that was padlocked.
“How are we supposed to get inside?” I asked.
“There’s a window behind in the back with the boards loose. We can squeeze through there.” she said.
We walked around back and looked for the window with the loose boards. We eventually found it and entered the building. It was bare and had some wooden planks laying around.
“So is the tunnel in the basement or something?” I asked.
“Yeah it should be somewhere down there…” she said.
We found the stair that led to the basement. The stairs seemed long and plunged into the darkness of the basement.
“That looks really creepy...” I said.
“Yeah… good thing I brought a flashlight…” she said.
The staircase was rather narrow with walls on it’s sides. At least if we fall it’d be down the stairs instead of over the railing into a freefall until we splatter on the ground.
“Alright, we should be almost there, after we get there, there’s no turning back.” she said facing me.
“I know this.” I said.
“So you are sure you want to go through with this? You can always just head back the way we came.” she said.
“I’m sure… besides you’d be lost and die without me.” I said.
“Yeah right.” She said with her usual sassy tone.
We made it to the tunnel and opened it. We walked into it only bringing our memories and what we brought with us. Leaving everything behind.
“I wonder what’s going to be on the other side...” I said to Gabriella.
“I don’t know, I just know it’s not as bad as everyone thinks.” Gabriella said.
“So what about Carlos and your family? Will you miss them?” I asked.
“Of course I’ll miss them. That was a pretty stupid question. I’m sure you’re going to miss your parents too.” she said
“Yeah I guess you’re right. I just hope they’ll be okay.” I said
“I told Carlos to tell my parent what was happening. Carlos didn’t want me to go but he understood why. He said when he’s about to turn sixteen he’ll come after us. So we’ll eventually have to come back to meet him.” she said.
“I wonder when my parents will find out… I left them a note but they probably won’t be home until late and once they come back they’ll probably fall asleep.” I said.
“Nothing will ever be the same…” she said.
“Yeah I figured that.” I said.
We continued down the tunnel for what felt like miles. The tunnel was weird. It seemed like it had been here forever. It felt like someone purposely built this tunnel. I wondered if anyone else had used this tunnel. I also started to wonder why Gabriella knew about it.
“Hey, Gabriella.” I said.
“Yeah, what’s up?” she asked.
“How did you know about this place?” I asked
“Well the abandoned warehouse I had seen throughout my life and we go past it almost everyday when we go to school.” she said
“What about the tunnel, how did you know about it?” I asked
“I’ve been here before. I thought it would be a cool place to look through so I did.” she said
“Are you sure it will lead to the outside?” I asked.
“I’m sure.” she said.
We continued to walk in silence. It seemed like we had walked many more miles until she said something.
“I think we’re almost there.” she said.
“Oh really?” I said
I noticed the air smelt a little fresher and it seemed like it had gotten brighter.
“There’s a door up there” Gabriella said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yeah really, let’s go!” She said excited.
We ran up to the door and got ready to open it. The smile on Gabriella’s face was a smile I hadn’t seen in years.
“You ready Damian?” she asked
“I’m ready.” I said
With that we walked through the door. We left our old lives behind and now we’ve come here to start a new one. I don’t know what will happen now but I feel like everything will be okay.
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